Chester Race Company Wins Corporate Social Responsibility Award at the Cheshire Business Awards

Friday the 7th of October was a celebratory affair, with Chester Race Company collecting the Corporate Social Responsibility Award at the 2016 Cheshire Business Awards. Sponsored by Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Chester Race Company pipped rivals Hero Renewables of Middlewich and Rhino Safety Limited of Sandbach to claim the accolade.

The submission, spearheaded by a new ‘Project 1000’ initiative focused on the recently established partnership with Chester Voluntary Action and the commitment from Chester Race Company to dedicate a full day’s volunteering for each of its full time employees, equating to over 1000 hours of charitable work across 10 separate local charities. Joanne Walton of Chester Voluntary Action said

“It’s been a pleasure working with Chester Race Company on their employer supported volunteering initiative, ‘Project 1000’. Project 1000 enables employees to participate in volunteering that will be fulfilling and beneficial for everyone involved. They’ve successfully aligned the needs of local charities with the values of their business and interests of their staff. It’s refreshing to work with a local business that actively encourage employees to find out about local charities and get behind them.

Chester Race Company has spent time communicating and planning the volunteering programme and they’ve created a tremendous opportunity to make a greater social impact while also benefiting their own business. Research clearly demonstrates its benefits for the employer, the employee and the wider community. The business case is that volunteering boosts employee engagement and pride, and we hope to see other businesses adopt a similar framework for employer supported volunteering initiatives.”

The nominated charities are all based in and around the City of Chester and incorporate children’s services, mental health support and supporting homelessness. Chester have committed to deliver this pledge throughout October and November in 2016 and have already seen some fantastic results across a number of projects.

Jocelyn Horton, Volunteer Co-ordinator at Save the Family said “We are delighted that Chester Racecourse has joined forces with Save the Family and The Earth Skills Project to work on the new Child’s Living Den at our accommodation centre for homeless and troubled families near Chester. The Den has been funded by Veolia and will truly capture the children’s imagination and sense of adventure. Save the Family supports homeless families 24/7 and this is an amazing opportunity for children to play outdoors and be surrounded by nature.”

In addition to Project 1000, in 2016, Chester Race Company have allocated 1,100 tickets free of charge for Tickets for Troops across both Chester and Bangor-on-Dee Racecourses. The Racecourses have also helped facilitate numerous local charity bucket collections on racedays, helping to raise over £35,000 in 2016 to date. An additional £20,000 worth of tickets and badges have been allocated to local charities and charitable causes in 2016 for entry to both Chester and Bangor-on-Dee Racecourse.

On receiving the award and the work that Chester have committed to and completed in 2016, Jeannie Chantler, Charity coordinator at Chester Race Company said: “We’re thrilled to have been recognised for this award. 2016 has been a big year for us, launching the Project 1000 initiative. The reaction amongst the charity stakeholders and wider beneficiaries has been fantastic and we’re looking forward to reaching our 1000 hour target and putting some further reaching objectives in place for 2017.”

If you volunteer or work for a charity who you believe may benefit from support from Chester Race Company, please contact Jeannie Chantler. Requests are dealt with on a case by case basis and we aim to respond directly within three working days.